The White House had an awkward experience during their celebrations on Tuesday when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to remind the audience—made up of lawmakers and supporters from across the country—to clap while toting their new bill on the White House lawn.
"Mr. President, thank you for unifying and inspiring a vision of a stronger, fairer, safer future for all our children. Your extraordinary leadership has made this glorious day possible," Pelosi said.
Pelosi stumbled over her words in her speech, but catching herself said, “that’s an applause line,” almost more to herself than to the crowd in order to incite applause.
“Jill was applauding!” Pelosi joked, gesturing to the crowd.
"And let us salute Leader Schumer (and) his colleagues in the Senate for their extraordinary leadership and the success in bringing this bill to the floor," Pelosi added. In response, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer interjected, “That’s an applause line!”
During the celebration, Schumer scorned Republicans for failing to join them to “make these investments and new jobs possible.”
“While MAGA are fixated on their extremist agenda like a national abortion ban, Democrats are focused on creating jobs, lowering costs, and bringing the country together,” said Schumer, most likely in reference to a 15-week abortion bill proposed by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Tuesday.
Biden echoed the sentiment later in his speech, saying he believes Republicans “could’ve and should’ve joined us.”
The bill is a doctored version of the Build Back Better Act, which comes almost a year after it was first introduced, but stalled after Senator Joe Manchin (D-W. VA) failed to back the bill and negotiations between him and Schumer fell through. The bill is supposed to lower prescription drug costs such as insulin, invest billions of dollars into climate and energy initiatives, cut the national deficit, and raise taxes on big corporations.
The celebration may seem like odd timing for many Americans after a report came through on Tuesday that, despite inflation slowing down, consumer prices are still 8.3% higher for the month of August compared to the same month last year.